Paper Plate Owl Mask

Let me start today by saying that even though this is the second kids craft I have posted in the last week, I'm generally not a kids craft kind of person. This little mask came about because of my daughter's preschool group. There are five kids in the group and all of the mom's take turns hosting. This week was my turn and I actually had in my brain all week that I was supposed to be teaching the letter N, but when I checked the schedule last night right before bed I realized I was actually on the letter O. After a slight panic I started thinking back to my childhood and the different things my mom did to keep us entertained when we complained of boredom. We didn't have a T.V. so putting us in front of cartoons was not an option. And most of the time when we complained she would say something like "well, I can think of something for you to do...like clean the bathroom." Occasionally though she would make homemade play dough for us or another favorite was paper plate hats. She pulled out some paper plates, string, and whatever craft items she had on hand and let us go to work with a hot glue gun.

So, obviously hat doesn't start with the letter O, but owl does, and I started thinking, instead of a hat how about a mask. And that is how the paper plate owl mask came about. It does require some adult help, but most kids could do the majority of it on their own.

Start by cutting two slits into the top of your paper plate about 1 1/2 inches long, then fold down the rectangular flap.

Trim off about an inch of the flap and glue the rest of it to the plate. You can have the kids color or paint the plate brown at this point or just leave it white.

Cut out two large yellow eyes, and one orange triangle for the nose. I discovered that my half cup measuring cup was the perfect size for the eyes. The nose I just did freehand.

Glue the eyes and nose to the plate and trace two smaller circles inside the eyes. Very carefully, use a sharp knife to poke a hole in the center of the eyes and then use scissors to cut out the smaller circles. (tip: use the thinnest paper plates you can find and construction paper instead of card stock)

Poke holes on either side and tie on some elastic or string.


And if your kids keep saying "that doesn't look like an owl" reassure them that it will when they put it on

So my noses were maybe a little too big, but they still turned out cute and the kids had fun making them.